1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to x-ray imaging, more particularly, to backscatter x-ray imaging of soft body tissue.
2. Description of the Related Art
X-ray imaging has been done by conventional transmission x-rays for many years. Film imaging has now been largely replaced by digital imaging. This more convenient mode does not produce better spatial resolution but is superior in allowing convenient transmission of the images and manipulation to better evaluate the images.
Still more recent is the development of three-dimensional (3D) systems for breast imaging. These systems use digital tomography/laminography algorithms that produce 3D images that appear at the present time to be better able to detect small cancers of the breast.
Thermal (infrared) imaging of the breast has a long history. It has recently been proposed to use nano-particles that have been tagged to locate tumor tissue together with external magnetic field excitation to locally heat suspect areas in the breast for imaging and treatment.
The use of backscatter x-ray systems for the inspection of personnel for security purposes is now common. These systems operate at very low exposure levels and are limited to an exposure of 10 micro-Roentgens (μR) by government regulation. The current system will provide more than 1000 times greater x-ray flux to the patient than the security systems, providing image quality never seen before in soft tissue or the lung.